Tag Archives: Sachs Orbit hub

I became interested in hybrid gearing after acquiring my 1973 Jack Taylor Tourist, about 9 years ago. The bike features a single front chainring, 6 speed cassette and a 2 speed Sachs Orbit internal hub. That gives it 12 gears overall, with a good range for the kind of riding I do, as the internal hub’s lower gear is about a 33% reduction, which is quite significant. For awhile, I didn’t think much about this interesting arrangement, and instead just enjoyed riding the bike, and being able to do a substantial downshift while sitting still at a stop light.

Sachs Orbit 2 speed hybrid hub with 6 speed cassette.

There are a number of ways to accomplish hybrid gearing. You can forgo a front derailleur, and use an internal two or three speed hub to take the place of multiple chainrings. You can also use multiple chainrings with an internal hub, and forgo the cassette/freewheel. Or, you can be like Sheldon Brown and do both, achieving a 63 speed bicycle – his beloved “O.T.B.” which used a 3 speed SA hub, a seven speed cassette, and 3 chainrings. Doing the math: 3 x 7 x 3 = 63. So with modern technology, let’s calculate the possibilities: a 14 speed Rohloff hub, paired with an 11 speed cassette, with a triple chainring = 462 gears! Probably that set up would be a mechanic’s nightmare, so if you really want this many gears, I suggest you purchase a continuously variable NuVinci hub – but be prepared to deal with quite a bit more than a couple of pounds of extra weight.

Sachs Orbit hub – NOS early 90’s with two optional cassettes

There is really only one source on the internet for information about the Sachs Orbit 2 speed hybrid hub, and that of course is the Sheldon Brown site, with additional information and clarifications by bike guru John Allen. One of the things I worried about with this hub on my Jack Taylor was being able to find replacement parts, given that the hub was so rare. Fortunately, a while back I found a NOS Sachs Orbit hub, pictured above, which I could use as a replacement in case something went wrong.

1973 Jack Taylor Tourist Sachs Orbit hybrid hub

Meanwhile, the original hub is working just fine, and needed only occasional lubrication with automotive oil. I had sent the hub out for a rebuild nine years ago, and it is working perfectly, still.

Info on the box of the replacement hub seems to indicate this is a 1992 hub

Very pretty hub logo engraved into the hub shell

Be careful with these spindles!

The replacement hub I purchased is quite lovely, and has two different cassette options – for 5 or 6 speeds. The cassette cogs and spacers slip onto the freehub with tabs to line up the rings, except for the final smaller cogs, which screw onto the freehub. As one pedals, these smaller cogs with screw-on threads will get tighter and tighter.

Because this replacement hub is so nice, I have been thinking about using it to build into an interesting wheel set for a road/commuter bike, rather than keeping it in reserve for spare parts. One of the convenient features of this hub is that it can be operated by pretty much any front derailleur shifter, as there are only two positions on the hub. And, if something goes wrong with the hub on the Jack Taylor, maybe I will rethink hybrid gearing altogether.

1973 Jack Taylor Tourist

The bike’s rear wheel was an alteration from its original 1973 build, and whether or not this rear wheel was built by the Taylor brothers is unknown. However, I have noted that British bikes built in the 60’s through the 80’s sometimes featured hybrid gearing. This was especially true for the boutique manufacturers of that era. Sachs internal hub gears are considered on par with Sturmey Archer, and I will say that is true, based on my experience with riding this Jack Taylor. The hub has been totally reliable.

This early 90’s Sachs Orbit 2 speed hybrid hub has 36 holes, so it could work with a number of possible rims. It needs a bit of lubrication to bring it back to full glory, and if I end up needing to rebuild it, John Allen and Sheldon Brown will come the rescue.

Drooling over gorgeous vintage bicycles is one thing, but appreciating their enduring ride quality is another thing altogether. This 1973 Jack Taylor Tourist has been with me for over eight years, and while I rode it quite a bit initially, I eventually set it aside. The bike is larger than my usual size, and I did not adequately assess the lack of comfort associated with a 55 cm top tube length, given that I normally ride a 51.

Adding to that are the big 27 inch wheels and 29 cm bottom bracket height. Throwing a leg over this bike is like mounting one’s 16 hand steed for a ride in the country side. However, the very tall riding position is great for commuting. It puts your head up above the fray and helps make you more visible to the car driving masses. So, in order to enjoy this bike I needed to make some ergonomic changes. Back to the drawing board.

I needed to bring the bars closer to me. The tall Nitto Technomic stem came to the rescue. Drop bars or mustache bars would push my arms out too far for this top tube length, so I located a vintage city style bar that had the right clamp size for the Nitto Stem. I used Velo Orange levers to complete the vintage look. Even though new, they are quite a bit more sturdy than the Weinmann and DiaCompe flat bar levers made in the 70’s. Their only downside is that the levers sit out pretty far from the bar, so they are not the best choice for smaller hands. I couldn’t resist using some bright yellow Benotto bar tape, which when wrapped three times over fit perfectly on the grip side of the bars, and which brings out the bike’s vibrant yellow highlights.

This bike is unique in many ways, and one of them is the rear wheel which features this Sachs-Fitchel 2 speed Orbit hub. The internally geared hub takes the place of a front derailleur and extra chain ring. I had sent the hub out for a rebuild 8 years ago, not daring to do it myself at the time. It still feels smooth, so I resisted the very faint urge to tear it down. The internal gears can be lubricated by removing the spindle and squirting in a bit of automotive oil. Easily done. The spindle broke apart a number of years ago, so I did my own repair job using a tiny brad which I banged into the chain links. The repaired link is slightly bigger than it should be, but hasn’t caused any problems. One of the nice things about this gearing arrangement is being able to shift to a lower gear when stopped. That’s not something you can do with a 100% derailleur equipped bicycle.

Whenever a bike sits for a while, all kinds of things go wrong. Grease congeals, one kind of metal fuses itself to another kind of metal, bearings embed themselves into their cups and cones, and rust seems to form everywhere.

So, there were lots of other issues to address: pitted bottom bracket cups, which I replaced with an exact and pristine match that I happened to have in stock; broken wiring for the sidewall driven Soubitez dynamo; and various rusted areas on the frame which needed to be sanded and then painted (I use clear Testor’s paint). I had considered replacing the dynamo with something newer, but it is actually working just fine, and I can use it as a back up to my battery powered light if needed. (P.S. I hate dynamos).

I really like these IRC 27 x 1 1/4 inch tires. I purchased them eight years ago and unfortunately, they can no longer be found. Not not only do they have a nice appearance, the sidewalls are very supple and the ride quality is even better than the much beloved Panaracer Pasela’s I have ridden. I hope to ride these tire until the bitter end, and replace them only when absolutely necessary. One issue with these older rims is that they cannot tolerate high pressures, due to their design. So, I have blown these tires off the rim more than a few times. Finally, I have settled on 70 psi in the rear and 65 psi in the front, and have had no blow outs since.

In addition to rebuilding the pedals, front hub, and bottom bracket, I also replaced the straddle cables for the Mafac Cantilever brakes. The brakes, while very powerful, are noisy under hard braking, partly because I am using these Kool Stop pads which not only don’t allow for toe-in, they seem to provide for the opposite of toe-in. Even so, I would rather have these strong and reliable cantilevers for commuting in Portland.

And finally, I sourced an exact match for the taillight with the broken reflector. I kind of miss the look of the bare bulb, though.

Now it’s time to get back out on this bike into this Fall’s windy, rainy weather and ride the leaf strewn avenues of Portland – hopefully in comfort!

I seem to be on a 70’s Brit-bike craze! But it has lasted a while, as I have had this Jack Taylor Tourist Mixte for about 8 years. At the time I purchased it from Hilary Stone, he thought it was a 1960s model. After the bike safely made its crossing over the Atlantic, I disassembled it for cleaning and was able to read the matching serial numbers at both the rear dropout and the steerer tube more clearly, and have now dated this bike to 1973.

The build quality of this bike is classic Taylor brothers, with incredibly smooth brazing at all the joints. It is made, of course, with Reynolds 531 double butted tubing, and features Campagnolo dropouts, hand-hammered fenders, through-the-frame dynamo wiring, and those beautiful and colorful Jack Taylor logos. The Taylor brothers followed the practice of building their mixte frames with a single sloping standard diameter top tube fillet brazed at the seat tube with the two extra mixte stays of fairly narrow diameter. Having ridden all kinds of mixte frames, I have to say that this method is likely not the most ideal in terms of adequate frame stiffness. On this bike, the head tube feels somewhat independent from the rest of the bike. Mixte frames are best, in my opinion, when built with twin lateral sloping down tubes that extend to the rear dropouts, or if a single tube is used, extending the mixte stays beyond the seat tube also helps keep the frame adequately stiff, such as this design by Peter Weigle.

This is one of the few bikes I have ever ridden that was geared too low for me. It was set up with a Stronglight 99 crankset carrying a single drilled 36 tooth ring (pictured first), mated to a Sachs-Fitchel Orbit 2 speed hybrid hub with a 6 speed cassette ranging from 14 to 28 teeth. The hybrid internal hub is meant to take the place of the front derailleur (or add to it, if you are Sheldon Brown and want 63 gears), and it provides a direct drive, and one lower gear that is about 25% lower than the direct drive. So, with this set-up, the lowest gear was around 24 gear inches – wow! Unfortunately, the gearing topped out at 65 gear inches, and that meant that I didn’t have much in the way of a comfortable cruising gear, much less any way to power up to speed on a sprint. Since I didn’t want to change out the Stronglight 99 crank, I replaced the 36 tooth ring with a 38, (pictured second), and that helped a bit. Even so, I rarely engage the lower internal hub gear, as I really don’t need it, so I ride this bike as a 6 speed, for the most part.

The photo above shows its original configuration as shipped, but it is very likely that the Sachs Orbit hub set up was not part of the original build, but was added later. I don’t think these hubs were made until the 1980’s, and the 27 inch (yes, not 700c) rims do not match, with the rear being a Weinmann and the front rim remaining unbranded and probably the original wheel built by Ken Taylor.

This is one big mixte! The seat tube measures 54cm and the effective top tube length is a whopping 55cm. With its large wheels and big frame, it cuts an imposing shadow. The bike came equipped with no-rise French-sized mustache bars shimmed into a Milremo stem.

So, I changed out the bars and stem to bring them closer to me using a tall no name stem with very little reach and some Soma Mustache bars. I also swapped out the Madison leather saddle, which was pretty worn, with the Ideale Model 75 saddle pictured above. Unfortunately, while looking very pretty, this leather saddle, though vintage, is still hard as a rock and needs some breaking in. Here are photos of the rest of the components:

Suntour V-GT rear derailleur

Mafac cantilevers, of course.

Milremo front hub with very stylish wingnuts.

Soubitez dynamo

Constructeur racks front and rear, mounted only to the fenders.

Seat stay brazing, nice and simple. The paint now looks great after weeks and weeks of cleaning and polishing.

This photo was taken before cleaning and polishing.

Original French mustache bars. SunTour Stem mounted shifters.

Another broken reflector

She’s a beauty! I commuted on this bike for a few years, but haven’t ridden it much lately, as I still have not made ergonomic peace with it. With spring coming, I think I will dust if off and see if I can’t make this ride a bit more comfortable for me.